If it has been a while since you attended live theater, now is a fantastic time to go out and see a show! For a few of Denver's best theatrical events, this is closing weekend, so see them now before they're gone. These shows off a nice balance of classic and contemporary shows, so regardless of your taste, there is something playing that will delight you! Westword recommends these shows:
5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche
“At the center, it’s a really sweet love story — and the funniest show of the year. I actually think that’s true. People who think women can’t be funny? Well, they should come and take a look at this.” That’s director Edith Weiss’s description of 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche, and Weiss knows all about funny: She made her living as a standup comic for years. The play takes place in 1956, during the height of the Cold War. “Everybody is in the closet, and this is a meeting of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein,” Weiss explains. “Everyone in the audience is at the meeting; it’s quite interactive. This is their annual quiche breakfast. They almost worship, shall we say, the egg. Everybody has submitted a quiche, and they’re going to pick the best one. The play has some huge surprises.” Presented by the Avenue Theater through February 28, 417 East 17th Avenue, 303-321-5925, avenuetheater.com. Read our interview with Weiss here.
Benediction
Benediction is a world premiere, a tribute and a deeply affecting evening of theater. Based on Kent Haruf’s novel of the same name, the play circles the dying of an old man named Dad Lewis — and Haruf’s death last fall gives the production a bittersweet resonance. Dad had run the hardware store in the fictional plains town of Holt, a place that moves to its own rhythm. The stories that take place here are on one level realistic — particularly in the strong, clean, unornamented exploration of the townsfolks’ lives — but they also feel out of this world and out of time. Benediction is set in the early years of this century, yet no one appears to have a cell phone. In fact, when a phone of any kind appears — a little girl calls her grandmother from a store — it registers as a major event. Still, the truths explored here are grounded and universal. Dad’s dying is troubled by memories of an act of cruelty he committed that caused his teenage son to flee their home and filled the life of his wife, Mary, with grief and loss. Rough-hewn and inarticulate, he expresses his yearning for expiation in small, practical gestures. Daughter Lorraine considers throwing off an unrewarding relationship in Denver and staying to run the hardware store. Neighbor Berta Mae has taken in Alice, the eight-year-old child of her own daughter, who died of breast cancer. Almost all the women of the town love and cosset little Alice, each for her own specific reason. In a separate, intertwining plot strand, Reverend Rob Lyle arrives with his emotionally estranged wife and troubled teenage son, having been reassigned from Denver for defending a homosexual colleague. In a welcome return to the Denver stage, Mike Hartman exudes authenticity as Dad, and his fine performance is matched by Joyce Cohen’s caring, understated Mary. The direction is tender, but without a lick of sentimentality, and a couple of pivotal scenes linger in memory, one involving bright, arcing sprays of water, the second a boy alone in semi-darkness with a chair, a box and a rope. It’s in this semi-darkness that we come to understand that while some relationships are irretrievably broken, others can still find healing. Presented by the Denver Center Theatre Company through March 1, Space Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 303-893-4100, denvercenter.org. Read the full review here.
The Cripple of Inishmaan
Miners Alley has mounted a lively, funny, thought-provoking production of The Cripple of Inishmaan , which is set on one of Ireland's bleak Aran Islands. As depicted by Martin McDonagh, the people of the place have their own nasty, brackish culture. Billy, the cripple of the title, was orphaned when his parents drowned soon after his birth, in circumstances that are variously explained. He has been raised by the women he calls his aunties, Eileen and Kate. These two have their eccentricities, but they're still the most human of the play's characters. Johnnypateenmike is the town gossip, wheedling food in exchange for his stories, some of them meaningless, some whose meaning turns out to be the opposite of what it seems, and some important in unanticipated ways. Johnnypateenmike is locked in a relationship with his hateful, alcoholic mother, who refuses to die despite the fact that he plies her with booze. There's also Helen, the nasty girl Billy secretly fancies, who spends much of her energy tormenting her weak-minded brother, Bartley. Everyone's life is upended by news that a Hollywood director has arrived on the neighboring island of Inishmore to find actors for a film called Man of Aran. Billy decides to audition and cons fisherman Babbybobby into taking him to Inishmore. The plot is full of surprises and reversals, much of what you see isn't what it seems, and the role of gossip and storytelling in creating reality looms large. This is one of McDonagh's less violent works, though clearly its blows and beatings are meant to be relished, and much of the humor comes from the continual psychological torment that the characters inflict on each other. Presented by Miners Alley through March 8, 1224 Washington Avenue, Golden, 303-935-3044, minersalley.com. Read the full review here.
Fiddler on the RoofThis production of Fiddler on the Roof does full justice to Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s brilliant songs, tells the evocative story with clarity and feeling, and also — uniquely — sounds the musical’s deeper, darker chords. The action is set in a rural Russian Jewish community whose members can be quarrelsome and petty or generous and helpful, but always unified by timeless bonds of ritual and tradition. At the center of the community is Tevye, a poor milkman struggling to survive and with five daughters to worry about. His worries come to a head when the three eldest daughters, each in turn, defy his patriarchal authority: Instead of submitting to the manipulations of matchmaker Yente, Tzeitel chooses the tailor Motel and only then asks her father’s permission; Hodel falls in love with radical Marxist Perchik and prepares to follow him wherever his revolutionary work leads; and, worst of all, Chava marries outside the faith, choosing a Russian soldier. A lot of Tevyes come across like Jewish Santa Clauses, but Wayne Kennedy’s version is a different animal entirely. He gives the comedy its due but lets us see the profound sadness beneath the jovial exterior — and something more. This man is loving to his children, generous to the stranger — as Jews are historically required to be — and jokey and argumentative with God. But there are deep currents of rage coursing through his veins as he contemplates the loss of everything he’s cherished, including his little bird, his daughter Chava. The entire cast is strong and conveys a sense of authenticity and respect for Jewish history, and the menace humming beneath the action reminds us of the real dangers of the pogroms. Presented by BDT Stage (formerly Boulder’s Dinner Theatre) through February 28 at 5501 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder; for information, call 303-449-6000 or go to bouldersdinnertheatre.com. Read the full review here.
Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking
The Broadway musical is a big, bloated, conventional, endlessly copycatting phenomenon that cries out to be skewered, and Forbidden Broadway — in various incarnations — has been busily skewering it for over three decades. Despite this, Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking never feels packaged. Starring four of our brightest local talents, it’s fresh, alive, and very, very funny. The roster of parodies takes in everything from Les Misérables through the Disney churn-outs to the serious, soulful Once, and the show manages to be savage without losing its good humor. If you hate the musical in question, you’ll find the parody hilarious; the same is true if you love/hate it; and there’s a subversive thrill in seeing even work you genuinely admire skillfully satirized. A couple of numbers miss, however. The Book of Mormon had to be in the mix, given its phenomenal success, but the song in which Trey Parker and Matt Stone exult in their own cleverness and wealth isn’t nearly as funny as the musical itself. Still, most of the parodies sting beautifully. “On My Phone,” sung by a bored Eponine texting away backstage inLes Mis, is a comedic gem. Then there’s the jealousy duet between Chita Rivera, the first Anita in West Side Story, and Rita Moreno, who played the role in the movie, sung to the tune of “America.” And no matter how often Wicked gets satirized, you can’t prick that hot-air-filled balloon often enough. This show requires a lot of talent, and the performers have it in spades: splendid voices, clear enunciation (essential), charm and fearless comic chops. It all adds up to one of the brightest, sharpest, most entertaining evenings around. Presented by the Garner Galleria Theatre through March 1, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 303-893-4100, denvercenter.org. Read the full review here.
Next to Normal
The musical Next to Normal garnered a Pulitzer for composer Tom Kitt and writer Brian Yorkey and high praise from critics, in part because it dealt with the ugly realities of mental illness — an unusual and courageous focus for a generally upbeat and unrealistic medium. At the center of the plot is Diana — smart, self-possessed and cynical, but, as we soon discover, fighting bipolar demons. Her disease can be off-putting: She’s querulous and angry, so absorbed by the rickety workings of her own mind that she can barely spare a moment’s attention for anyone else — but somehow you still empathize with her suffering and appreciate her brave and incisive attempts at humor. Diana never recovered from the loss of her first child, a son who died at eight months old and would have been eighteen at the time the action begins. Because of her obsession with him, she neglects her husband, Dan, who long ago set aside his own needs to take care of hers, and her daughter, Natalie, a perfectionist high-schooler who struggles to be seen and acknowledged by her parents and senses within herself the dangerous shards of her mother’s illness. Seventeen-year-old stoner Henry introduces her to pot and jazz; Natalie moves beyond his tutelage to embrace musical chaos and the dozens of pills and potions in her mother’s medicine cabinet. This is the most revelatory production of Next to Normal to hit town so far. Under Nick Sugar’s empathetic direction, all the singers perform with subtlety and finesse. Their fine voices aren’t overmiked; you can savor the musical dynamics and understand the lyrics. Donna Kolpan Debreceni’s musical direction always carries a kind of joyous skip, and she and her musicians provide a vital antidote to the score’s occasional portentousness. Margie Lamb played Diana well in a fine previous production. Now she’s even better. She owns every aspect of the role, giving us all the character’s complexities in one prickly, scintillating package. Jacquie Jo Billings is an appealing Natalie, so glowy and young at the beginning, so lost later. And Daniel Langhoff gives his all in a moving performance as weary, loving Dan. In all, there’s a lot to celebrate in this fully realized and emotionally rich production. Presented by Town Hall Arts Center through March 15, 2450 West Main Street, Littleton, 303-794-2787, townhallartscenter.com. Read the full review here.
Which of these shows have you seen or plan on attending?
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